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The
man we today know as Richie Sambora was born as Richard Stephen Sambora on July
11th, 1959 in Perth Amboy, NJ. He grew up in Woodbridge, also in New Jersey.
As a kid, Richie Sambora played and took lessons on piano, saxophone and trumpet.
At 14 he started on the guitar, being inspired by people like Eric Clapton,
Johnny Winter, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Richie played with many local bands
and actually toured with Joe Cocker for a while and even audtioned for KISS
but didn't get the job, and he now claims he never really wanted it. A band Richie was
in, "Message" , also included Alec John Such, and the recorded an
album "Lessons", which wasn't released until recently. Richie met
Jon at a concert to promote the collection album with Runaway on it. Basically
Richie told Jon, that he was the guitar player they needed, and although Snake
Sabo, who was with Jon at the time was good, he was too young. Jon didn't like
Richie too much, but Alec talked Jon into trying it out with Richie. After the
first rehersals the job was Richie's. "He had his
own style, which wasn't ripped off from Eddie Van Halen - like all the other
guitarists that were kicking around that year. " said Jon of him. A diversified
music listener, Sambora comes from a background of Beatles, Eric Clapton, Johnny
Winter, Led Zeppelin, "a lot of blues stuff," and his range of listening
goes from Peter Gabriel to Metal Church to Tchaikovsky. Since 1983, Bon
Jovi's albums have sold more than 93 million copies worldwide. Sambora has co-written
four No. 1 hit singles, 20 Top 10 singles and nearly 40 Top 40 singles. Richie
has also released two solo albums, "Stranger In This Town" and "Undiscovered
Soul" and has appeared on many CD's over the years, the newest being Pink's
Misundastood, on the song Misery. Richie is married
to Heather Locklear and has a daughter Ava Elizabeth. They live in Los Angeles.
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